Введение в английский фольклор.(Translated into English folklore)

1. Введение в английский фольклор

2. На вводном занятии (19.10)

Термин «фольклор» / folklore
История термина
Истоки фольклористики как науки;
механистическая / органическая картина мира
Lore: значение и классификация
Некоторые календарные традиции Англии

3. Занятия 2 (26.10), 3 (02.11)

Что изучает фольклористика? (продолжение)
Folktale
Fairytale: классификация (-и)
Практика: Reading a fairytale from Somerset
Анализ фольклорного текста: понятия type,
motif; ATU Index, Thompson’s Motif Index

4. I. Folktale - Theory

5. Alan Dundes – Definition of folklore (1)

Folklore includes myths, legends, folktales, jokes, proverbs, riddles, chants,
charms, blessings, curses, oaths, insults, retorts, taunts, teases, toasts, tonguetwisters, and greeting and leave-taking formulas (e.g., See you later, alligator). It
also includes folk costume, folk dance, folk drama (and mime), folk art, folk belief
(or superstition), folk medicine, folk instrumental music (e.g., fiddle tunes),
folksongs (e.g., lullabies, ballads), folk speech (e.g., slang), folk similes (e.g., blind
as a bat), folk metaphors (e.g., to paint the town red), and names (e.g.,
nicknames and place names). Folk poetry ranges from oral epics to autographbook verse, epitaphs, latrinalia (writings on the walls of public bathrooms),
limericks, ball-bouncing rhymes, jump-rope rhymes, finger and toe rhymes,
dandling rhymes (to bounce children on the knee), counting-out rhymes (to
determine who will be “it” in games), and nursery rhymes…

6. Alan Dundes – Definition of folklore (2)

… (continuing) The list of folklore forms also contains games; gestures; symbols;
prayers (e.g., graces); practical jokes; folk etymologies; food recipes; quilt and
embroidery designs; house, barn, and fence types; street vendor’s cries; and even
the traditional conventional sounds used to summon animals or give them
commands. There are such minor forms as mnemonic devices (e.g, the name “Roy
G. Biv” to remember the colors of the spectrum in order), envelope sealers (e.g.,
“SWAK”—Sealed With A Kiss), and the traditional comments made after body
emissions (e.g., after burps or sneezes). There are such major forms as festivals and
special day (or holiday) customs (e.g., Christmas, Halloween, and birthday).
This list provides a sampling of the forms of folklore. It does not include all the
forms. (1965)

7.

Folklore includes myths, legends,
folktales...

8.

What is a folktale?

9. Folktale: definition

• Broad sense: all traditional narratives in prose (legends,
anecdotes…)
• Narrow sense: only fictional narratives

10. Types of the folktale (broad sense)

• Fairytale (wonder tale, magic tale)
• Legend – a short traditional oral narrative about people,
objects and places that exist(ed) in real life
1. Historical – about historical figures (heroes/kings/saints)
2. Local – about landmarks/buildings in a certain area
3. Migratory – found repeatedly at different places; same plot
but different place names
4. Contemporary – urban legends
• Fable – short comic tales making a moral point about human
nature
• Memorate - about a personal experience (“I saw a ghost”)
• Tall tale – about astonishing adventures, unrealistically big
animals and objects; presented as (not meant to be!) truth

11. Approaches to explaining parallelism in folklore

Monogenesis
Polygenesis
• A story/song/ritual has a
single origin
• It is reproduced by people >
multiple versions appear
• Further versions are based
on these versions, but may
still resemble the original
• This hypothesis is more
popular in folklore studies
• A story/song/ritual was
created many times, at
different times and places,
by different human beings
• They are similar because:
- societies develop in the
same way
- our psychological
processes are the same
- we symbolize similar
experiences in similar ways

12. How can folktales be classified?

• Catalogue (classification system): created by Finnish folklorist
Antti Aarne (1867 – 1925). Still in use, almost universally
accepted by folklorists.
• Index of Folktale Types (1910) – Указатель сказочных типов;
first published in German, Verzeichnis der Märchentypen
• Revised and expanded by the American folktale scholar Stith
Thompson: 1928, 1961 – the Aarne-Thompson system (AT)
• Further improved in 2004 by Hans-Jörg Uther: The Types of
International Folktales: A Classification and Bibliography – the
Aarne-Thompson-Uther system (ATU)

13. Key terms used in folktale research

Type
• An established and
recognisable plot (“taletype”)
• >> Type set: a group of
variants of one and the
same tale, based on the
same plot
• Example: ATU* 510A –
Cinderella (=Persecuted
Heroine)
*Aarne-Thompson-Uther
Motif
• A recurrent element of a
story (= an event, character,
object or action)
• Not the entire story – just
an important part of it!
• Example: Part of Cinderella
as a complete tale – Motif N
711.6 “Prince sees heroine
at ball and is enamoured
(=falls in love)”

14. Classification of motifs

Motif-index of folk-literature
• Stith Thompson, 1955-1958
• A motif can be found in
many tale types at the same
time
Example: Motif Index - Structure
• A. Mythological Motifs
• B. Animal Motifs
• C. Motifs of Tabu
1. †C400--†C499. Speaking
tabu.
– †C420. Tabu: uttering secrets.
• †C420.2. Tabu: not to speak about a
certain happening.

15. Motif C420.2 in an English legend: “The Old Man at the White House”

THERE WAS ONCE a man who lived in a white house in a certain village, and he knew
everything about everybody who lived in the place.
In the same village there lived a woman who had a daughter called Sally, and one day
she gave Sally a pair of yellow gloves and threatened to kill her if she lost them.
Now Sally was very proud of her gloves, but she was careless enough to lose one of
them. After she had lost it she went to a row of houses in the village and inquired at
every door if they had seen her glove. But everybody said “No,” and she was told to go
and ask the old man that lived in the white house.
So Sally went to the white house and asked the old man if he had seen her glove. The
old man said, “I have thy glove, and I will give it thee if thou wilt promise me to tell
nobody where thou hast found it. And remember, if thou tells anybody I shall fetch
thee out of bed when the clock strikes twelve at night.”

16. Types and Motifs: Main sources

1) http://www.mftd.org/index.php?action=atu - ATU
2) http://www.ruthenia.ru/folklore/thompson/ Motifs
3) books.google.ru/books?id=ukW8g_68b8C&printsec=frontcover&hl=de#v=onepage
&q=1090&f=false – Baughman (a catalogue for the
English-speaking world)
4) http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html - Prof.
Ashliman, Folklore and Mythology Electronic Texts

17. II. Folktale - Practice

18. The Apple Tree Man

Motifs
• B251.1.2, “Animals speak to one
another at Christmas”
• N541.1, “Treasure reveals itself
only on Christmas at midnight (or
Christmas Eve)”
• N511.1.9, “Treasure buried under
tree”
• N471, “Foolish attempt of second
man to overhear secrets.”

19. Little Rosy

Type
ATU 720, My Mother Slew Me; My
Father Ate Me, The Juniper Tree
Motifs
• E613.0.1, “Reincarnation of
murdered child as bird”
• G61, Relative’s flesh eaten
unwittingly”
• N271, “Murder will out”
• S31, Cruel stepmother”

20. Thank you!

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